Thanks,Lindsay -and yes,the Poland/Silkie cross I used at the beginning was because of all the references I had seen about the topknot -and she has passed that on to all her offspring ! I do wonder now if that cross was really neccesary ,though,as I now have youngsters with equally extravagant hairdos from purely Tnn /Silkie origins , just by working with very well-feathered Silkies Big D my two eldest cockerals are called Barnum and Bailey ,then theres Billy (Smart.....) George (Irvin) and Zippo (the circus my son worked in ).......... got a whole pen of great showmen there !!

I have a mixture of brown and blue egg layers as well as my showgirls -makes for easy egg-sorting because I gave up on trying to keep the blue egg gene in my Showgirls really early on,at least four generations back from the birds I am breeding from now - so the coloured eggs are for eating ,the cream ones for hatching ,easy .......... but i have just realised one of my Showgirl pullets ,hatched last year and only just come into lay,is laying a beautiful sky-blue egg !! I have popped her into a cage overnight to check ,its definately hers - Im SO chuffed (the original Showgirls were blue-egg layers ) Made me a bit misty-eyed to realise that my lovely old Aracauna girl had left her legacy after all

I think they must have a sense of humour,Chris -she has completely messed up my colour-coded egg collection system !(which your girls are contributing too ,bless them ! ) I was really shocked that that particular gene has re-surfaced after so long,cant wait now to see if any of her POL sisters have it as well, which would confirm that it has been passed down through my maybe very aptly-named cockeral ,"Blue " !!! Hes the splash boy you took up to the National for me ,Sue ,so I am already very proud of him .